Stjepan Babić (29 November 1925 – 27 August 2021) was a Croatian

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

and academic.

Biography

Babić was born in the small town of Oriovac in

Brod-Posavina County Brod-Posavina County () is the southern Slavonian county in Croatia. Its center is the city of Slavonski Brod and it spreads along the left bank of the Sava river, hence the name '' Posavina''. Other notable towns include Nova Gradiška. Geograp ...

, even though his biological parents are from

Hrvatsko Zagorje Hrvatsko Zagorje (; Croatian Zagorje; ''zagorje'' is Croatian language, Croatian for 'backland' or 'behind the hills') is a cultural region in northern Croatia, traditionally separated from the country's capital Zagreb by the Medvednica mount ...

. He attended primary school in Oriovac, and gymnasium in

Slavonski Brod Slavonski Brod (, ), commonly shortened to simply Brod, is a city in eastern Croatia, near the border with Bosnia and Herzegovina. Being one of the principal cities in the historical regions of Slavonia and Posavina, Slavonski Brod is the 7th lar ...

Osijek Osijek () is the fourth-largest city in Croatia, with a population of 96,848 in 2021. It is the largest city and the economic and cultural centre of the eastern Croatian region of Slavonia, as well as the administrative centre of Osijek-Baranja ...

and finally in

Zagreb Zagreb ( ) is the capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Croatia#List of cities and towns, largest city of Croatia. It is in the Northern Croatia, north of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the ...

. In 1948, he was employed by Industrogradnja, but soon thereafter the political winds threw him to Petrinjska prison. After Petrinjska, he enrolled to

Faculty of Philosophy A faculty is a division within a university or college comprising one subject area or a group of related subject areas, possibly also delimited by level (e.g. undergraduate). In North America, academic divisions are sometimes titled colleges, sc ...

at the

University of Zagreb The University of Zagreb (, ) is a public university, public research university in Zagreb, Croatia. It is the largest Croatian university and one of the oldest continuously operating universities in Europe. The University of Zagreb and the Unive ...

in 1949, graduating in 1955 with a degree in Croatian,

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

and

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

. Afterwards, he remained working as an assistant at the Faculty of Philosophy, defending his PhD in 1962 and receiving full professorship in 1975. He was the vice-president of

Matica hrvatska Matica hrvatska () is the oldest independent, non-profit and non-governmental Croatian national institution. It was founded on February 2, 1842 by the Croatian Count Janko Drašković and other prominent members of the Illyrian movement during ...

from 1989 to 1992, and representative in the () from 1993 to 1997. He retired as professor in 1991. Babić died in

on 27 August 2021, at the age of 95.

Selected works

Babić was one of the most prolific Croatian linguists, with over one thousand published works (books, articles, etc.). His work deals predominantly with modern Croatian standard language,

word formation In linguistics, word formation is an ambiguous term that can refer to either: * the processes through which words can change (i.e. morphology), or * the creation of new lexemes in a particular language Morphological A common method of word form ...

in particular. In his papers published during the 1960s, Babić advocated a linguistic unification of Serbs and Croats. Since the 1990s, Babić has been one of the leading proponents of language purism in Croatia. His puristic approach has been criticised by Ivo Pranjković and especially by

Snježana Kordić Snježana Kordić (; born October 29, 1964) is a Croatian linguist. In addition to her Academic publishing, work in syntax, she has written on sociolinguistics. Kordić is known among non-specialists for her numerous Article (publishing), article ...

. (CROLIB)
/small>. (NSK)
/small>. Babić's tendency to use the topic of language to spread nationalist ideology was evident in his articles published in the journal ''Jezik'', in which Babić was editor-in-chief. (NSK)
/small>. (FFZG)
/small>. This listing includes only books: * "Hrvatski pravopis" (co-authored with Božidar Finka and Milan Moguš) 1. edition was outlawed in 1971 (reprints:

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

1972, Zagreb 1990.), 2 1994, 3 1995, 4 1996, 5 2000, 6 2002, 7 2003 * "Pregled gramatike hrvatskoga književnog jezika" (co-authored with Stjepko Težak) 1973 (later editions are called "Gramatika hrvatskoga jezika", such as that of 1992. (7. ed.), 2000. (12. ed.): "Gramatika hrvatskoga jezika : priručnik za osnovno jezično obrazovanje") * "Tvorba riječi u hrvatskom književnom jeziku" 1 (an outline for the grammar) 1986, 2 1991, 3 2002 * "Opća i slavenska terminološka problematika" 1987 * "Hrvatska jezikoslovna čitanka" 1990 * "Hrvatski jezik u političkom vrtlogu" 1990 * "Povijesni pregled, glasovi i oblici hrvatskoga književnog jezika" 1991 * "Tisućljetni jezik naš hrvatski" 1991 * "Hrvatski jučer i danas" 1995 * "Hrvatski politički vicevi" 1995 * "Sročnost u hrvatskome književnome jeziku" 1998 * "Crvena magla", novel 2000 * "Vedre priče", short stories 2000 * "Hrvatska jezikoslovna prenja" 2001 * "Prijedlog za ukidanje hrvatskog jezika" 2003 * "Hrvanja hrvatskoga : hrvatski u koštacu sa srpskim i u klinču s engleskim" 2004 * "Hrvatski školski pravopis" (co-authored with Sanda Ham and Milan Moguš) 2005 * "Temelji Hrvatskomu pravopisu" 2005 * "Razmišljanja o Bogu i patnji" 2005 * "Glasovi i oblici hrvatskoga književnoga jezika" 2007 * "Rječnik kratica" (co-authored with Milena Žic-Fuchs) 2007

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Babic, Stjepan 1925 births 2021 deaths People from Oriovac Linguists from Croatia Croatian lexicographers Members of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb alumni Academic staff of the University of Zagreb Linguists from Yugoslavia Burials at Mirogoj Cemetery